My cousins had an Amiga 500 and as far as I can remember it was one of the first machines I played games on as a child. I knew a few other people that had them too.
I think they were quite popular here in Australia in the late 80's/early 90's, Doom changed all that.
I started collecting them a few years ago and ended up with an A1000, A1000 Phoenix, A500 and A1200
The Phoenix was missing a large number of GAL chips for additional features which I managed to track down and program myself. Got everything working except the SCSI controller.
I also bought one of the new ACA1230 accelerators, its amazing that such old consumer hardware still has peripherals actively developed for it.
They were fun to fiddle with and restore but I lack the time and space to continue that hobby nowadays so I've sold them recently. I would just set them up, watch a few scene demos then have to pack them away again...
I agree with luckybob though, the community surrounding Amiga these days is a bit shit, with a few exceptions (most of the Australians I've met that are into amiga are pretty cool).
If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.